The Global Outreach Subcommittee of UPC's Outreach Committee coordinates the Mission and Outreach work we do with partners around the world, and works to educate the congregation about the lives of people in other nations.

Some of our on-going projects are summarized below and at this link.

We meet on the 1st Monday of each month to plan on-going and new efforts. If you have a heart for international outreach, are excited about making outreach a part of the active life of this congregation and in learning more about our brothers and sisters around the world, this group is for you!

Contact Mark Peifer to find out where your energies can best be ‘put to work'![]

Current News

• June 2010: Our partners at St. Joseph's Family have nearly completed demolition of the earthquake-damaged St. Joseph's and Wings of Hope Homes.  Our contribution from the McFadden Bequest has helped fund this effort. You can learn more about them at this link [Click here.]
• June 2010: Please pray for our partners in Guatemala as they recover from the damage done by Tropical Storm Agatha, the first of the Pacific hurricane season.
• In September 2010, the Latin Patriarchate School will resume in Zababdeh on the West Bank in Palestine. Pray for Father Firas and our partners there as they struggle to teach peace amidst the challenges of Occupation.
• On October 3, 2010, World Communion Sunday, we are looking forward to a visit by the Resurrection Dance Theatre and our friends from St. Joseph?s Family in Haiti. [Hearts With Haiti - click here]

Our Partnership
With the Latin Patriarchate
School in Palestine:

The Middle East was home to the Jewish people, to Jesus and to the early Church, and remains a home for many Christians, Moslems and Jews.  This is a troubled time for the region, and children are especially vulnerable.  In an effort to help some of the children caught in the conflict, our Church School has established a partnership with Father Firas of the Melekite Catholic Church  and with the Latin Patriarchate School in Zababdeh on the West Bank.  You can learn more about the first six years of this project, Zababdeh and the school at this link.

Our Partnership With Haiti: 

Haiti is one of our closest neighbors, yet remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. We are called to partnership with our brothers and sisters there, helping them develop the means to better their own lives, and we also have much to learn from them. University Presbyterian Church has been working for a number of years with several organizations in Haiti to do so, and has also sent mission teams to Haiti almost every year since 2002. They have returned witnessing to the depth of faith, joy of Gospel, and true sharing of our brothers and sisters in that neighboring country.

Among our closest partners in Haiti are the St. Joseph's Family Homes [link to  www.heartswithhaiti.org].   Begun 25 years ago by Michael Geilenfeld as a Christian home for boys on the street, it has grown into three homes serving more than 80 children.  St. Joseph's is in the Perionville section of Port au Prince.  Wings of Hope is a home for disabled children, and is in Fermanthe near Port au Prince, while Trinity House is in Jacmel on the Southern coast.  The children and their leaders also provide nutritional support and schooling for other children in both communities.

A second close partner is Family Health Ministries (FHM). [link to http://www.familyhm.org]  This Durham based group was founded by David and Kathy Walmer.  Working with Haitian partners, they support programs in maternal and child health, nutrition, education and church development in Haiti.  They have built and help staff clinics in Blanchard and Leogane, and support child nutrition and education efforts in the mountain community of Fondwa.

FHM also works in concert with our third close partners, Pastor Leon Dorleans and his wife, the educator Jackie Dorleans  [link to www.haitioutreachministries.org]  
Leon has visited UPC and spoke from our pulpit. He and his partners work in the some of the poorest communities in Haiti, Cite Soleil, Blanchard and Repatriote, as well as in the village of Ibo beach.  In each community, they have built a church, a school, and a small clinic, the later in partnership with Family Health Ministries.For more information about UPC's work in Haiti contact Portia Christensen () or Kay Leaman (). 

Click here for more information about UPC's past mission trips to Haiti. 

Our Partners in Guatemala:

We have worked with several partners in Guatemala.  Our longest connection has been with the Sinodica, the women's organization of the National Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Guatemala (Iglesia Evangélico Nacional Presbiteriana de Guatemala--IENPG).  We were introduced to this organization by Ellen Dozier, who was a PCUSA mission co-worker in Guatemala from 1996-2008.  Ellen assisted the directors of the local presbyteries and women's groups as they planned activities and find ways for women to be involved in ministry in Guatemala. She also worked with a theological education project for women that is jointly sponsored by the Sinodica and the Presbyterian seminary in Guatemala. This work comes at a turning point for women and the church in Guatemala. "It is an exciting time in the life and work of the women of the IENPG," Ellen writes, "especially since the church voted recently to ordain women to the ministry of elder and the ministry of Word and Sacrament. This has led to an interest in education to prepare women for the roles of elder and pastor. Women are looking for new models and visions for their ministries in Guatemala." In January 2009 Amanda Craft [link to http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/missionconnections/craft-amanda/] replaced the retiring Ellen Dozier as the PCUSA liason with the Sindoica. We sent a Mission team to Guatemala in 2009 to learn more about this important work. Both Ellen and Karla Koll [link to http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/missionconnections/koll-karla-ann/], another PCUSA mission co-worker in Guatemala, visited our church in 2009. Karla teaches at the Latin American Biblical University and works with CEDEPCA [link to http://www.cedepca.org].  We have also supported CEDEPCAs efforts to provide theological education to a new generation of Latin American Church leaders.  In addition to our partnership with these organizations, we support efforts to help educate Guatemalan students in poor communities in Guatemala and to bring promising students to the US for study here. 

Our Partners in Southern Africa:  

Our Partners in the Middle East: 

Our work in the Middle East is facilitated by our partner, the PCUSA Mission Co-worker Nuhad Tomeh [link to http://www.pcusa.org/missionconnections/profiles/tomehn.htm].  Dr. Tomeh is currently assigned to serve with the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC) as an associate general secretary, in charge at present of the Iraq relief and rehabilitation program, which is part of the ecumenical relief services of the MECC.  Through him, we have helped provide health care to war refugees in both Syria and Lebanon, the latter in partnership with the Syriac Orthodox Bishopric of Mount Lebanon.  We have also assisted the Presbyterian Church in Tyre Lebanon.   

Alternative Market  

Each year Global Outreach and volunteers from our church community help put on the Alternative Gift Market. This offers us an opportunity to choose gifts for Christmas that help our brothers and sisters around the world as we honor our families and friends. Each year a number of different organizations doing work in international development, health care, and education in our own country and around the world are profiled, including some of the partners described above. Where else do you have the chance to buy your mother a pig or camel, or give your uncle books for a classroom full of children? Our totals have risen from about $12,000 in 2003 to almost $18,000 in 2009.  In the past seven years we have raised about $116,000 to support development, health care, and educational projects in the US and around the world.